3501.38
General rules for petitions and declarations of candidacy.

All declarations of
candidacy, nominating petitions, or other petitions presented to or filed with
the secretary of state or a board of elections or with any other public office
for the purpose of becoming a candidate for any nomination or office or for the
holding of an election on any issue shall, in addition to meeting the other
specific requirements prescribed in the sections of the Revised Code relating
to them, be governed by the following rules:

(A)
Only electors qualified to vote on the candidacy or issue which is the subject
of the petition shall sign a petition. Each signer shall be a registered
elector pursuant to section
3503.01 of the Revised Code. The
facts of qualification shall be determined as of the date when the petition is
filed.

(B)
Signatures shall be affixed in ink. Each signer
may also print the signer's name, so as to clearly identify the signer's
signature.

(C)
Each signer shall place on the petition after the
signer's name the date of signing and the location of the signer's voting
residence, including the street and number if in a municipal corporation or the
rural route number, post office address, or township if outside a municipal
corporation. The voting address given on the petition shall be the address
appearing in the registration records at the board of elections.

(D)
Except as otherwise provided in section
3501.382 of the Revised Code, no
person shall write any name other than the person's own on any petition. Except
as otherwise provided in section
3501.382 of the Revised Code, no
person may authorize another to sign for the person. If a petition contains the
signature of an elector two or more times, only the first signature shall be
counted.

(1)
On each petition paper, the circulator shall
indicate the number of signatures contained on it, and shall sign a statement
made under penalty of election falsification that the circulator witnessed the
affixing of every signature, that all signers were to the best of the
circulator's knowledge and belief qualified to sign, and that every signature
is to the best of the circulator's knowledge and belief the signature of the
person whose signature it purports to be or of an attorney in fact acting
pursuant to section 3501.382 of the Revised Code. On
the circulator's statement for a declaration of candidacy or nominating
petition for a person seeking to become a statewide candidate or for a
statewide initiative or a statewide referendum petition, the circulator shall
identify the circulator's name, the address of the circulator's permanent
residence, and the name and address of the person employing the circulator to
circulate the petition, if any.

(2)
As
used in division (E) of this section, "statewide candidate" means the joint
candidates for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor or a candidate
for the office of secretary of state, auditor of state, treasurer of state, or
attorney general.

(F)
Except as otherwise provided in section
3501.382 of the Revised Code, if
a circulator knowingly permits an unqualified person to sign a petition paper
or permits a person to write a name other than the person's own on a petition
paper, that petition paper is invalid; otherwise, the signature of a person not
qualified to sign shall be rejected but shall not invalidate the other valid
signatures on the paper.

(G)
The circulator of a petition may, before filing it in a public office, strike
from it any signature the circulator does not wish to present as a part of the
petition.

(H)
Any signer of a petition or an attorney in fact
acting pursuant to section
3501.382 of the Revised Code on
behalf of a signer may remove the signer's signature from that petition at any
time before the petition is filed in a public office by striking the signer's
name from the petition; no signature may be removed after the petition is filed
in any public office.

(a)
No
declaration of candidacy, nominating petition, or other petition for the
purpose of becoming a candidate may be withdrawn after it is filed in a public
office. Nothing in this division prohibits a person from withdrawing as a
candidate as otherwise provided by law.

(b)
No
petition presented to or filed with the secretary of state, a board of
elections, or any other public office for the purpose of the holding of an
election on any question or issue may be resubmitted after it is withdrawn from
a public office or rejected as containing insufficient signatures. Nothing in
this division prevents a question or issue petition from being withdrawn by the
filing of a written notice of the withdrawal by a majority of the members of
the petitioning committee with the same public office with which the petition
was filed prior to the sixtieth day before the election at which the question
or issue is scheduled to appear on the ballot.

(J)
All declarations of candidacy, nominating petitions, or other petitions under
this section shall be accompanied by the following statement in boldface
capital letters: WHOEVER COMMITS ELECTION FALSIFICATION IS GUILTY OF A FELONY
OF THE FIFTH DEGREE.

(K)
All separate petition papers shall be filed at the
same time, as one instrument.

(L)
If
a board of elections distributes for use a petition form for a declaration of
candidacy, nominating petition, or any type of question or issue petition that
does not satisfy the requirements of law as of the date of that distribution,
the board shall not invalidate the petition on the basis that the petition form
does not satisfy the requirements of law, if the petition otherwise is valid.
Division (L) of this section applies only if the candidate received the
petition from the board within ninety days of when the petition is required to
be filed.

(1)
Upon receiving an
initiative petition, or a petition filed under section
307.94 or
307.95 of the Revised Code,
concerning a ballot issue that is to be submitted to the electors of a county
or municipal political subdivision, the board of elections shall examine the
petition to determine:

(a)
Whether the petition
falls within the scope of a municipal political subdivision's authority to
enact via initiative, including, if applicable, the limitations placed by
Sections 3 and 7 of Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution on the authority of
municipal corporations to adopt local police, sanitary, and other similar
regulations as are not in conflict with general laws, and whether the petition
satisfies the statutory prerequisites to place the issue on the ballot. The
petition shall be invalid if any portion of the petition is not within the
initiative power; or

(b)
Whether the petition falls within the scope of a
county's authority to enact via initiative, including whether the petition
conforms to the requirements set forth in Section 3 of Article X of the Ohio
Constitution, including the exercise of only those powers that have vested in,
and the performance of all duties imposed upon counties and county officers by
law, and whether the petition satisfies the statutory prerequisites to place
the issue on the ballot. The finding of the board shall be subject to challenge
by a protest filed pursuant to division (B) of section
307.95 of the Revised
Code.

(2)
After making a determination under division (M)(1)(a)
or (b) of this section, the board of elections shall promptly transmit a copy
of the petition and a notice of the board's determination to the office of the
secretary of state. Notice of the board's determination shall be given to the
petitioners and the political subdivision.

(3)
If multiple substantially similar initiative petitions
are submitted to multiple boards of elections and the determinations of the
boards under division (M)(1)(a) or (b) of this section concerning those
petitions differ, the secretary of state shall make a single determination
under division (M)(1)(a) or (b) of this section that shall apply to each such
initiative petition.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.40, HB 194, §1 Made subject to referendum in the Nov. 6, 2012 election. The version of this section thus amended was repealed by 129th General AssemblyFile No.105, SB 295, §1, eff. 8/15/2012.